


Havenbound

by godtiermeme



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-05 21:03:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godtiermeme/pseuds/godtiermeme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The passenger jet <i>Peacekeeper</i> was supposed to be an escape from the tumultuous global war—a safe haven for those important or rich enough to board. But, when it crashes in the middle of an isolated forest, it ends up killing most of the people it was trying to save. Yet, from the wreckage, a small handful of young adults manage to escape alive; but, surviving is only one part of their trial.</p>
<p>The second part of their trial begins when they awake in a perfectly operational though not yet finished city to find that it—aside from the single mysterious woman who helped them—is completely empty. Yet, at the same time, the bears no evidence of abandonment. And this brings up a rather important question among the survivors—where the hell are they?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. [DAY000]

**The passenger jet, Peacekeeper, has crashed.**   
**Its location is unknown and no survivors are expected.**   
**Due to resource constraints, no rescue efforts will be made.**   
**Families of the deceased have been notified.**   
**Descriptions of passengers have been posted.**   
**If anyone sees anyone matching these descriptions,**   
**please contact your local military official.**

_Eridan Ampora. Rear third class compartment. Seat 32._   
_Black hair with purple streak. Roughly 5’7” White._

_John Egbert. Rear third class compartment. Seat 3._   
_Black hair. Roughly 5’8” East Asian._

_Jake English. Middle second class compartment. Seat 58._   
_Black hair. Roughly 5’10” North African._

_Jade Harley. Rear third class compartment. Seat 4._   
_Black hair. Roughly 5’4” East Asian._

_Rose Lalonde. Forward first class compartment. Seat 43._   
_Blonde. Roughly 5’9” White._

_Dave Strider. Forward first class compartment. Seat 42._   
_Blond. Roughly 6’2” White._

_Karkat Vantas. Forward first class compartment. Seat 11._   
_Black hair. Roughly 5’3” South Asian._

**ACCESS FILE: [KARKAT_VANTAS-000]**

The first words that Karkat Vantas heard after waking up from his enigmatic slumber were cold, flat, and comprised of layer upon layer of synthesized electronic noise. And, when he turned to meet the noise, he found that the person they came from was just as strange. He was a tall, pale man with a round device sticking out from beneath the golden blond hair on the left side of his head, whose eyes were hidden behind a pair of reflective black sunglasses. His words, though, were anything but strange. Really, they were exactly what anyone in a similar situation would ask. “Where are we?”

Still, the sound alone was jarring, and the air was thick with uncertainty and fear. And, amidst his own confusion, he could only muster up a crude, blunt response. “Fucking great question. Does it look like I fucking know?”

The blond took the reply well, though. He shrugged, tugged at the long red sleeve of the baseball shirt he wore, and breathed forth a quiet sigh. “Nope. Maybe you did, though. Don’t know until you try, right?”

“Yeah,” murmured Karkat. “So, who the hell are you?”

Another shrug. A flash of a lopsided smile that favored the right side of his face—a smile that, for some reason, Karkat found somewhat attractive. “Name’s Dave Strider. You?” He emphasized his point by quirking his brow so that half of it was visible above the top of his shades. He tilted his head slightly to the side.

Karkat, however, wasn’t going to let his guard down that easily. He took a wary step back and shrugged. “Why do you care?” he snapped.

And, to that, the blond—the enigmatic Dave Strider—replied with a harsh, metallic snicker. It was this odd noise that stemmed from the combination of a high-pitched whine, a modulating bassline hum, and a warbling mid-range chirp. He, however, didn’t seem to notice it as he continued, “Well, it looks like we might be stuck together for a while. Might as well try and get along, right?”

A hesitant nod served as Karkat’s response. A short pause followed before, without any real reason, he let some of his guard drop. A sense of ease started to settle in. “I guess so,” he muttered. “I’m Karkat Vantas. Might as well say it’s nice to meet you.”

“Ditto.” Dave shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out black jeans and shot back with another lopsided grin, “You have any idea about what’s going on here?”

“Nope,” sighed Karkat. “So… Um… About your voice?”

Dave cut in before anything more could be said. “It’s a long, shitty story, dude.” He tugged at the left sleeve of his baseball shirt, revealing a web of scarred, burned skin which ran from the back of his hand upwards. When he noticed the look of concern that crossed his new acquaintance’s face, he pulled the sleeve back down. “Maybe later. Not now. Probably ain’t going to be soon, either. But, if we don’t die…”

The door slammed open. Both Dave and Karkat jumped before turning to face the tall woman who stood in the doorway. Her lips were covered in a thin layer of black lipstick, and her eyes were a peculiar shade of jade green, but—Karkat noted—she had the same russet brown skin as him. She had the same smooth black hair, too, though hers was tamed into a decent shape.

“Good. You’re both awake.” She spoke with a fine sense of articulation. Her words were chosen wisely, as if she’d thought them out beforehand. “If you could follow my lead, it would be greatly appreciated.”

Though Karkat didn’t notice, Dave glanced warily towards him before following the woman.

And, so, they were led down a long, straight hallway. Doors with numbers on them lined their path. Eventually, they emerged in a seemingly vast multipurpose room with only a few folding chairs and a singular podium.

When they arrived, they found themselves in a room of mostly strangers. At least, for Karkat, they were all strangers. Dave, however, knew one person—a blonde woman with a facial structure very similar to his own. Rose Lalonde. His half-sister.

Everyone else, though? They were complete mysteries and, at the time, Karkat was too busy listening to the woman at the podium—the stranger he’d followed down the hallway—as she spoke.

“My name is Kanaya Maryam. I’ve been caring for you all after recovering you from a plane crash that occurred just outside of this ponderous city…”


	2. [DAY001]

**ACCESS FILE: [DATALOG/WEAPONS-INVENTORY]**

_Eridan Ampora: Harpoon, Rifle_  
_John Egbert: Sledgehammer, Handgun_  
_Jake English: Pistols (2)_  
_Jade Harley: Hunting Rifle, Sniper Rifle_  
_Rose Lalonde: Knives (2), Pistol_  
_Karkat Vantas: Shotgun_  
_Dave Strider: Antique military rifle with bayonet_

 

**ACCESS FILE: [ADMIN_MARYAM-001]**  
**ADMIN LOG 001**

_Tested all residents. Most proficient fighters for long-range combat_  
_determined to be Eridan Ampora, Jade Harley, and Jake English._  
_Hand-to-hand combat suited for Rose Lalonde and Dave Strider._  
_Strategic work and leadership ideal roles for Karkat Vantas and Rose Lalonde._  
_John Egbert proficient in creative thinking and maintaining morale._

 

**ADMIN LOG 002**

_All residents moved to dormitory rooms._

_Eridan found to be uncooperative and rude towards roommates._  
_Moved to single room._

_New room assignments are as follows:_  
_102: Jake, John_  
_103: Dave, Karkat_  
_104: Jade, Rose_  
_105: Eridan_

 

**[ACCESS FILE: KARKAT_VANTAS-001]**  
**Last edited: 10:24PM**

When Karkat entered his newly assigned room, he found Dave sprawled out in the middle of the floor.

The room was, to be quite honest, pretty shitty. A singular bunk bed, a pair of dressers, and a pair of plain wooden chairs. That was all that furnished the sparse room. And Dave, in his infinite wisdom, had spread himself out in the middle of it. By then, he’d rolled his sleeves up and set his sunglasses on the bedside table; and, those actions revealed a bit more about him to Karkat.

For one thing, the burns that ran up the back of his arm were, at the very least, up to somewhere beyond his elbow. At least, they were visible to that point. Then, there were his eyes—a pair of pulsating red circles punctuated by a central pinprick of black and surrounded by gunship grey.

Around the time that Karkat noticed this, those strange eyes darted upwards to meet his gaze. An indifferent smirk spread across Dave’s face. The pinpricks of black quickly grew wider, then smaller, before settling somewhere in between. “Back at home, my older brother had a sort of thing for tinkering with robotics and that sort of shit.” He shrugged, sighed, and sat up. His legs were crossed and he leaned his arms on his knees as he continued, “Not really sure what he did and I don’t actually care, either. But he fixed these things up after I had a pretty nasty run-in with one of those fancy clone bombs.”

“You mean a neurotoxin bomb?” muttered Karkat. “Yeah, those things are fucking insane. Little cans filled with some sort of fucked over concoction of a whole shitload of things.” He paused and chewed on his lip for a brief moment. His hands dug deeper into his pockets and his gaze focused on the ground. “So,” he grumbled, “We’re roommates again?”

Another shrug. “I guess so.” He ran his fingers through his golden blond hair and rose to his feet with a peculiar mixture of grace and almost childish awkwardness. A few steps covered the ground between him and the bedside table, and he slipped his shades back on as he spoke. “You want to redo the whole introduction thing or can I just cut to the chase and ask you about what the hell is going on?”

Karkat responded with a halfhearted sigh. “I’d kind of like to know what’s going on, too, so let’s just jump right the fuck into that topic.”

A curt nod served as Dave’s reply. He quirked his brow so that his right eyebrow showed over the top of his sunglasses, and he flashed a somewhat uncertain half-smile. “What I got from that was that we were all on a plane and we slam dunked right into Mystery Nowhereville. Also, we’ve been out in dreamland for half a year.” He shrugged and tipped his shades up just long enough to meet Karkat’s gaze.

“Yeah. That’s pretty much what I figured,” came the reply. A heavy, nervous sigh accompanied it. Karkat’s shoulders slumped as he scuffed his shoe against the hardwood floor. “Fucking wonderful,” he growled. “We don’t know where the fuck we are. We don’t even know what the hell we’re doing.”

“That’s one way to think about it.” Another shrug. Dave folded his arms across his chest and wandered past his new roommate. He heaved a warbling tonal sigh and leaned his shoulder against the wall in which the front door was mounted. As he moved, he spoke; and, as he spoke, he tugged his shirt sleeve down to cover the burn scars that spanned an indeterminate amount of his body. “Another way to think about it is that this is one massive conspiracy. Or an adventure. Or a little of both.”

Karkat couldn’t help but crack a small grin at the suggestion. “You’re the last goddamn person here I’d expect to take this so lightly,” he snickered.

Dave, meanwhile, kept up his usual air of indifference. “Sometimes you have to, you know? World’ll drive you up a damned wall if you don’t.” A small frown broke his typical composure for a brief second. He drummed the fingers of his left hand against his right arm.

And, to this, Karkat let the small bit of amusement he’d had drop. He returned to nervously chewing on his lip.

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence hung in the air before Dave cut in again. “I’m kind of surprised you didn’t ask about my voice or anything,” he muttered, the tonal layers of his voice leaning more towards the lower bass range than usual.

Karkat tried to use his reply to cover his discomfort. “I mean, yeah, I’m curious. It’s all a bit fucking strange. But it’s not really my business.” He shrugged and locked his gaze even more intently on the floor.

To his surprise, though, Dave’s response was preceded by a quiet chuckle. “Long story, like usual,” he huffed. “It’s all pretty closely tied to how I ended up here, though. To sum it up, I lost my voice and my hearing in one crappy incident a while back. Really, dude, it’s a long, depressing story. You don’t want to hear it as much as I don’t want to tell it.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Karkat muttered. “So, you sleep with that thing on?”

“The box? No. The thing on the side of my head? Yes.” A brief shrug. Another warbling sigh. “Anyhow. I’m tired. Night, dude.”

“Night,” Karkat grumbled as he followed Dave’s example. He tossed aside his usual grey sweatpants and watched as Dave clambered up to the top bunk. A few seconds later, a pair of battered black jeans fell at his feet. The strange box was hung by its clear rubber strap over the side railing of the upper bunk a few moments later, and his reflective black shades were anchored securely to that strap.

A few minutes later, Karkat shut off the lights and crawled into the lower bunk. A few more minutes later, he found himself lying in bed, still awake, listening to the breathy, incoherent mutterings of his roommate. The only other noises that punctuated the strange nighttime silence were quiet mechanical hums and the occasional distant rumble of a far-off explosion.

Eventually, though, he managed to lull himself into a state of mild sleep. He drifted into that strange realm between reality and the most intimate imaginations of his own mind.


	3. [DAY002]

**[ACCESS FILE: JOHN_EGBERT-002]**   
**Last edited: 08:31AM**

If anyone had the furthest personality from Dave Strider’s, it had to be a bespectacled and relatively short male by the name of John Egbert. Whereas Dave kept his secrets locked away and guarded, John barely had any. Whereas Dave tried to hide his emotions, John tended to wear his on his sleeve. And, though he didn’t know it, John had all the confidence that Dave Strider lacked. In a way, he was everything Dave Strider wanted to be—comfortable with himself, optimistic, and seemingly carefree.

When he first met Dave—as the odd blond with reflective shades who sat down across the table from him with a plate of soggy beans—he had no way of knowing any of that. Rather, he merely did what he usually did when he met people. He cracked a wide, toothy grin and pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose.

In return, Dave offered his own botched half-smile. He prodded the wet slop of beans on his plate tentatively before speaking up. “You’re… John, right?” He frowned, set his spoon down, and folded his arms across his chest. “Or… Jake? Which one?”

John, meanwhile, kept up his usual grin. “First one, dude,” he snickered. “I’m John. Jake’s my roommate, though. He’s a nice guy… Snores like hell, though.”

The electronic hiss of a snicker slipped past Dave’s defenses. By what John could only guess was habit, he quietly clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times. A smirk worked its way onto his face. “Dave,” he introduced himself abruptly. “Dave Strider. Guess I can say it was nice to meet you.” After this, he paused, he flicked his shades up long enough for John to see a brief glimpse of a wink. Then, he shrugged. “You’re related to Jade, right?”

John returned with an indifferent nod. “Yeah. She’s my cousin… Sort of. She’s, like, kind of related. But not in any really direct way… If that makes any sense.” An apologetic shrug punctuated this statement. “Does it?”

“I guess so,” Dave muttered, prodding at the soggy beans a few more times before downing a spoonful.

All the while, John absentmindedly scratched his nail against the surface of the smooth plastic table he sat at. He sighed, chewed his lip, and glanced around the room. He noted that he and Dave were the only people awake. At the very least, they were the only ones in the multipurpose room. And that much was reasonable, really. Everyone had been required to go through an evaluation the day before and Kanaya had been kind enough to give everyone a day off. Naturally, though, that brought up an asinine but pressing (at least to John) question.

He knew why he was at the table. He’d grown accustomed waking up early to help his father maintain their family bakery, so he tended to wake up around the same time he always had as a child. Which left one glaring point—a point that John wasn’t shy to bring up. “What’re you doing up this early?”

The question was ultimately met with a nonchalant shrug. After downing another spoonful of beans, Dave provided as much of an answer as John assumed he’d get. “It’s eight in the morning,” he replied. “Not that damned early.”

John nodded. He stared at the beans on his conversational partner’s plate. The presumably edible slop looked absolutely disgusting; but, that wasn’t John’s main concern. Rather, he had a few more burning questions sizzling in the back of his mind. “So…” he began by pointedly moving his gaze downwards. A pause, a sigh that was more along the lines of a huff, and a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. Then, unable to hold back any longer, he spoke up. “Are you some sort of cyborg or something? I mean… No offense, but… That wasn’t exactly what I mean to say. Sorry.”

As John continued stumbling through an increasingly incoherent apology, Dave slipped off his shades and clipped them to the collar of his shirt. To John’s surprise, a lopsided half-grin pulled at the edges of his lips. (What John failed to realize was that this smile was about as sardonic as any smile could ever be.) “Might as well be one,” he shrugged. “Why?”

John frowned. He scratched at the back of his neck for a moment. “Just curious. I mean… It’s kind of neat. I’ve never really seen anything like the shit you’ve got.”

Dave nodded. “That much is true, at least,” he muttered. “My brother threw together most of this shit for me. Really, it was all a while back ago… Mostly.” He offered another small shrug before downing the last of what remained of his meal. Then, before John could say anything more, he stood up. “See you around later, I hope.” A curt wave preceded him putting his glasses back on and wandering off down the residential hallway.

**ACCESS FILE: [DAVE_STRIDER-002]**   
**Last edited: 08:49AM**

“Dave!” A familiar collection of tonal synthetic noise echoed in Dave’s mind as he was drawn into a room much like his own. This one, however, was occupied by what might as well have been female versions of himself and John.

Upon realizing where he was, he frowned. He tugged at his shirt, which had been wrinkled when he was unceremoniously pulled through the slightly opened doorway—and glanced towards a familiar face. He knew the face by memory. A bit rounder than his, but with the same pale complexion. Thin lips that were usually covered in a light layer of dark purple lipstick. Eyes that were more violet than they were blue—as opposed to what was listed on the birth certificate.

At the time, though, he stared at the rough shape of the familiar face through a tinted lens of vivid red. A box appeared around the face with text to the left. Rose Lalonde. A handy feature built into the display in his shades, though he didn’t really need it to know who the pixelated form in front of him was. He touched the tip of his tongue to the smooth printed circuitry that covered the roof of his mouth and slid it forwards. The identifying box disappeared as words that weren’t exactly in sync with the mouth movements he was seeing began to register in his mind.

“I’ve been trying to procure your attention for the past two days, Dave! I’ve been worried sick about you. I hope you’re aware of that.”

His frown grew more pronounced as he stared back at the form in front of him. “Damn,” his own voice screeched in his ears like metal scraping against slate. “I’m fine, Rose. Will you stop hovering over me like a hawk?”

A quiet beep sounded just behind Dave’s left ear. The display brought up a list of emotions on the right side—a list ranked from highest to lowest. At the time, the top item was “annoyance.” Really, though, that much was apparent in her reply. “I’m not surveying you, you know. I just wanted to certify that you’re perfectly fine.”

“Yeah?” Dave muttered, “Well I’m not dead, so we’ve got that cleared up nice and good. Now, can I got back to my room and go to sleep?”

“You’re not going to sleep, Dave. I know that much,” Rose shot back. “Though, from your behavioral habits lately, I’m going to presume that your roommate has piqued your personal interests?” It went wholly unnoticed, but she punctuated her statement with a small smirk.

Dave, meanwhile, tugged at the rubber collar around his neck. “No… I… He’s… You…” he stammered. A slight pink hue lit up his cheeks before he shot back, “At least I don’t shoot pining glances at him every other second.”

Rose, in return, shrugged.

Then, a new voice. “Damn, Rose, you weren’t lying. These machines are impressive!”

Dave spun around to find himself staring at what seemed to be the physical clone of John as a female. He took a moment to reset the display, which (for some reason) seemed to be dead-set on labelling her as Rose—and quirked his brow. “How long’ve you been there?”

A small shrug and a hum of thought. “About the entire time,” she responded by flashing a grin that managed to register under the category of “ecstatic” on the display.

The reply from Dave came as a groan of annoyance. “Will you stop staring at me like that?” As he finished, he became aware of the faint tones of Rose chuckling in the background. “Jade, right? Your name’s Jade?”

“Yep,” the girl chirped.

Dave heaved a long sigh. “Look, Jade, you seem real nice and all but I’m not into this whole thing you’ve got going on. Also…” He paused briefly, registering the noise of the door shutting. “Rose…?”

“She just left,” muttered Jade. “Sorry. You’re just really interesting. Or, at least, the stuff attached to you is.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment?”

Jade nodded. The display refreshed to show a new list of emotions. “Pleased” was the top one at the time. “Yeah. Anything good out there for breakfast?”

Dave frowned. It took him a moment to grasp the fact that Jade was talking about two completely unrelated things. The ‘yeah’ was in reply to him; the second comment was, well, just off the wall. Once he figured that out, though, he kept going as he usually did. He stuck his thumbs into his pockets and shrugged. “It’s all pretty gross, but my sense of smell and taste are kind of finicky.”

“Really?” Jade commented.

After a hoarse, somewhat nervous cough, Dave scuffed the toe of his canvas shoe against the floor. “Yeah. Getting all your other natural senses shot down one by one kind of has that affect.” A wavering half-smile punctuated his statement.

“You really are interesting,” snickered Jade. “I’m hungry, though, so we’ll have to catch up later. Have you met John yet?”

“Have I?” As per usual, he propped up his shades to roll his eyes before dropping them back in place. An oddly sincere smirk worked its way onto his features. “Oh. Hell yeah. I definitely did. I think he’s still out there, too.”

“He’s an early riser.”

“I’ve noticed.” The smile faded. After a few seconds, Dave tipped his head forward in a crude, short gesture of parting. Then, with a quiet “see you round,” he departed as abruptly as he’d showed up.


	4. [DAY003]

**ACCESS FILE: [KARKAT_VANTAS-003]**  
**Last edited: 12:01PM**

Go outside of the secure medical compound. Gather food and supplies until the two massive packs allotted have been filled. Return as a singular group. Reenter the facility without allowing any hostile opponents into the area.

Really, the instructions seemed simple enough. After all, they were presumably surrounded with fully stocked city stores and homes just ready to be moved into. As the heavy iron gates slid open to reveal the distant black smoke which billowed from an unknown source and the ash-covered streets, though, Karkat started having second thoughts about it all. The fact that the iconic blue blood of clones was splattered sporadically around the visible area didn’t help, either.

It wasn’t like he had a choice, though. He’d been assigned to venture out with Dave. Everyone was in the same boat as he was. John and Jade had been assigned to a group, though Jake had joined them early on after Eridan ditched him. All four of them had left about five hours ago. Rose and Kanaya had left two hours ago. Really, Karkat and Dave were just the last ones to leave.

Still, the fact that the first group—a group of what ended up being three people—still hadn’t returned was pretty concerning. And Karkat was pretty sure that he and Dave wouldn’t be enough to take down any formidable threats. All he had was a shotgun. Dave had an early 2000’s model of an American military rifle with a detachable bayonet.

To be quite honest, Karkat was more concerned about himself than Dave. After all, he’d never been in a military combat zone; Dave, however, obviously had a great deal more experience with such situations.

And, perhaps, Dave sensed the unease, because a small half smile spread across his face. He nudged his shades up so that he could meet Karkat’s gaze. Then, he made what was presumably an attempt at being reassuring. “You’ll be fine. If anything happens, aim for the head and just keep going. When you’ve cleared them all out, double back. They usually have some useful ammo and good shit like that. Some even have bulletproof jackets.”

His commentary, however, did little for Karkat. Rather, it only unnerved him even more. He’d grown up around clones. He’d watched as they were trained for combat and saw what happened when one didn’t meet the rigorous expectations. In a way, shooting one would be like shooting himself in the foot. But, he supposed it didn’t really matter. None of them would remember him; he’d have to shoot or be shot. And, really, he wasn’t up for dying on that particular day.

So, having no other real choices, he followed Dave. All the while, he noted his companion’s growing anxiety. He noticed how Dave’s finger seemed to instinctively hover over the trigger of his gun at all times, twitching whenever a strange noise ripped through the air.

Really, if there was a single word that Karkat could describe by in those moments, it would be something along the lines of either paranoid or confused. To be honest, the blond was a bit too jumpy for Karkat’s liking. The fact that he happened to be wielding a decent gun and had about a foot in height on him didn’t really help.

Still, as time passed, he seemed to grow less and less wary of things. Somewhere around the third hour mark, the pair broke into a sizeable pharmacy. Around that time, Dave started talking. He began with a simple and pretty asinine question. “Where’re you from?”

“What?” Karkat frowned and turned to face the blond who, by then, was busy shoving massive bags of potentially expired chips into his supply sack.

“Where’re you from?” repeated Dave as he quirked his brow. A small smirk spread across his face. “Personally, I’m from Texas. Or… It used to be Texas. Where I was from turned into even more of an overheated hellhole than usual after a while.”

In return, Karkat offered a small shrug. “Not really sure,” he admitted, “I just fucked around from place to place. I got shipped around the scientific facilities a lot.” He sighed, grabbed a handful of painkillers, and shoved the bottles into his own sack. By then, the pair were a little over three quarters of the way through their unsupervised raiding.

Dave, in fact, had nearly filled his pack. He was still intent on shoving as many bags of junk food into his pack as he could, though. “You mean the research centers that kept popping up everywhere?” he muttered.

“Fucking gigantic abominations of poorly designed iron walls and gates?” Karkat countered with a snort of bitter laughter. “Yeah. Those places.”

A short pause preceded Dave’s reply. “So… What? Were you a guinea pig or something?”

“Sort of,” shrugged Karkat. “People only really paid attention to me when they needed to try and evaluate something about me. Got really annoying pretty fucking fast.”

“I can imagine.”

“So, what about you? What’s your whole dramatic bullshit story?”

“Grew up in Texas with my older brother and half-sister. Not much else.” Dave’s elusive answer was accompanied by a quiet static hum of thought. He paused, folded his arms across his chest, and sighed. “You can’t really be that interested in my damned bullshit, can you?”

Again, Karkat shrugged. “Really, I’m just making some small talk,” he mumbled. “If you don’t feel like spilling out your personal guts all over this fucking room, then don’t.”

Dave nodded slowly. He ran his fingers through his hair. “How about we make a deal?”

“Like what? What’s the point of keeping a fucking deal, anyhow, in this crapsack world?” Karkat shot back.

That reply didn’t seem to put a damper on Dave’s emotions, though. Rather, a smirk spread across his face—one that, for the first time, showed a small glimpse of somewhat crooked, yellowed teeth. “Like I’ll tell you something about me if you tell me something about you. We build up to the big shit later. Maybe. Maybe you’ll just annoy the hell out of my and I’ll leave you here.”

A somewhat nervous but sincerely amused snicker escaped Karkat. “Sounds reasonable. So, what? I told you a brief overview of my life, didn’t I? You go right the fuck on ahead and give me something of equal value.”

Dave shrugged. He chewed on his lip for a minute or so before beginning, “Okay, then, asshole. You’ve got a deal.” He paused and tugged absentmindedly at the rubber collar around his neck. “So, what do you want to know? I’ve got a lot of shit I could talk about. Narrow it all down a little, asshole.”

“Are you just going to refer to me as an asshole all the time?” Karkat mumbled.

“Yeah,” Dave returned with a wry smile. “So, what? What the hell will we discuss today?”

Karkat shrugged. He sighed. Really, he could ask hundreds of questions. Who the hell was this blond jackass? What happened in his past that made him who he was? Why did he always look like a perpetually smug little shit? At the time, though, only one question managed to verbally manifest itself. “Fine, then. Explain that fancy fuck-knows-what that’s around your neck.”

“Fair enough,” Dave shrugged. “It’s got a nasty little story behind it, but I’ll just sum it up as I managed to get myself in some deep shit.” Here, he paused, he slipped the fingers of his right hand beneath the clear rubber collar and undid the clasp. A small round scar marked the place where the box had been. The box, meanwhile, dangled from the cord he held in his hand as explained further, “Basically, this thing’s a sort of speaker. I guess that’s what you’d call it.”

Once again, he ran his fingers through his blond hair. “It’s been a bit fucked over by mods and shit, but it picks up on the way my mouth moves and spits out whatever.” He offered another shrug and a bemused smirk. “Honestly, if I got electrocuted, I’m pretty sure my jaw would just drop off at this point.”

The commentary was met with a reasonable look of confusion from Karkat. This prompted the fading of Dave’s smirk into more of an awkward frown as he went back and clarified his own morbid joke. “My lower canines are fakes. They look like teeth but they’re actually fancy-as-hell sensor things. I think Rose called them modules or something. I don’t fucking know. I was just referencing that I’ve probably got enough bullshit in my mouth to… Never mind. It was a stupid joke, anyhow.”

Karkat, meanwhile, responded with a snort of laughter. “You’re just the epitome of social eloquence, aren’t you?” he snickered.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Dave muttered as he hooked the box back into place. “That much answer your question?”

“Hm…” To be honest, Karkat had been hoping for a bit more information on how he came to be the owner of such an odd device, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t get it at that point. So, rather than press the issue, he continued with a nod. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

And, to this, Dave replied with the first genuine smile that Karkat had ever seen from him. “Cool. So, how about we round up some more shit and wrap this bullshit hunt up?”

“That’d be fucking fantastic,” grumbled Karkat.

After showing off a quick wink, Dave resumed his quest for junk food.

Karkat continued pulling medical supplies from the shelf and, within the next hour, they were done. Really, it all went far better than Karkat had expected. The walk back to the main base was uneventful; and, for Karkat, that was the biggest relief of all.

**ACCESS FILE: [DAVE_STRIDER-003]**  
**Last edited: 11:45PM**

If there was one thing that Dave Strider consistently failed to do, it was actually make more than ten minutes of effort to go to sleep. At most, he’d roll around in bed for a few minutes before deciding that he wasn’t going to sleep. Then, he’d quietly slip out of the room and wander around.

On this particular night—technically the fourth night—he found himself sitting in the middle of empty multipurpose room and fiddling around with his various biotechnical settings.  In fact, he’d been doing so for at least an hour when his efforts were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice with an oddly familiar but wholly inexplicable accent.

“David Strider, right?”

He paused, closed out of the menu, and let his eyes scan around the room until a thin box lit up around a figure in the opposite corner. “Dave,” he muttered. “Dave Strider.”

“David, great.” With that said, the shadowy form in the corner stepped forward enough for him to be recognizably human. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eridan Ampora. I’m one of your fellow survivors.”

Dave nodded slowly. “Great. Why are you here?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” the form shrugged and adjusted an array of pixels that Dave could only assume were glasses. “And I noticed you sitting out here. Bit fucking late to be wandering around, isn’t it?”

“Why do you care?” Dave muttered.

“Why the fuck not?” replied Eridan.

A huff of frustration escaped Dave. “Look,” he growled, “I’m tired and I’d kind of like to be left alone. So, hey, we can talk later maybe but right now you’re freaking me out and you need to step off.”

“Whatever,” sighed the blurry shadow of a figure. A motion akin to a shrug. Then, the sound of receding footsteps.

Dave, meanwhile, retreated back to his room. While he wasn’t exactly about to try going back to sleep for another few hours, he certainly wasn’t sticking around to catch more of whoever the hell he’d just run into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In light of the update: I base Bro in this fic mostly off of Dirk and I'll be the first to admit that most of my stories are in a similar line of thought. So, yeah, Not canon at all. Shhhh.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, feedback, and corrections to my terrible lack of beta work are all welcome! Stay up to date (kind of) with the story by following [my blog](http://tennantstype40.tumblr.com) and feel free to use this piece for art of your own! Just be sure to credit it. On Tumblr, just tag with "fic: havenbound"!


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